Honda Racing - Mxsx

JustinBogle

After missing the entire 2013 Monster Energy AMA Supercross season with shoulder and wrist injuries, GEICO Motorcycle Honda's Justin Bogle is anxious to make up for lost time.

"I feel like I'm ready to move to the front," Bogle said. "I've learned a lot in a couple of years. I wouldn't change anything because what I learned while I was sidelined was valuable."

Despite missing all of last season's indoor action, Bogle rebounded to finish seventh in the 250cc class of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship.

"I have a solid season in the outdoors under my belt," Bogle said. "I built some momentum and got my confidence up. Add that to the testing, weight training, and riding I've been doing, and it makes me feel like I'm going to have a good year."

Now in his third year with the team, Bogle is ready to make the championship-level leap that other GEICO Motorcycle Honda CRF riders have made in the past.

"I think I'm ready to move up to the top of the 250 class," Bogle said. "I'm good friends with Wil Hahn. After seeing what he went through with injuries, then to see him overcome all of that and win a championship in Supercross, that's cool. It helps me to know that if you hang in there and keep plugging away you can make it happen. I feel like I can do it. Of course, things have to fall the right way, but I feel like that's coming."

For Bogle, the mental aspect of racing week in and week out can be as much of a grind as the physical toll the sport can take.

"The mental part of this sport is tough," Bogle said. "It's so difficult to go as many weeks in a row that we go. You think you know what to expect but you don’t know. People try to tell you how it's going to be, but it's hard to grasp it fully until you experience it for yourself."

Those are experiences that Bogle said he can pass along to the younger members of the team.

"It's my turn in that spot," Bogle said. "Whatever I can do to help the team out, I'm down for it all day long. In a way it's funny that I'm a vet now and I've really only completed one season of Supercross and one season of outdoors, but it's a spot I'm ready to be in and I'm excited to play that part."